On Saturday, Meryl Streep was among the inductees of the 16th Annual New Jersey Hall of Fame. No winners appeared in person, all thank you messages were previously taped. Meryl’s honor was introduced by her friend and co-star Cher, reminiscing on meeting Meryl for the first time on the set of “Silkwood”:

When Mike Nichols cast me in “Silkwood”, I felt so out of my league. Meryl had already won two Academy Awards, one for “Kramer vs. Kramer” and one for “Sophie’s Choice”, and had been nominated for “The Deer Hunter” and “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”. This chick was so impressive. It’s a little bit annoying, right? Anyway, it was 1982 and I’m getting ready to go to Texas to make my first real movie with Miss Award winner Meryl Streep. In the middle of packing I got a full blown anxiety attack and started to unpack my suitcase, saying “I can’t go to Texas to make a movie with Meryl Streep.” As I unpacked, my sister Georganne was repacking and I finally made it to Dallas. I saw her from across the room. She was wearing a long white dress. Her hair was light blonde and she looked like an angel. The moment she saw me she smiled and started walking towards me. As she got closer, she put her arms around me and said, “I’m so glad you’re here”. From that moment on I wasn’t afraid anymore. […] I want to tell you exactly what you told me when we first met. I’m so glad you’re here.

Here’s Meryl’s thank you speech. The full ceremony was live streamed on Youtube and can be watched in the video archive. Screencaptures have been added to the photo gallery.

I am thrilled and honored to be inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame alongside my heroes and the greats of our state. Thomas Edison and me. Me, a person whose name is in lights and the other person who invented lights. I mean, yikes. Back in high school in Bernardsville I never in my wildest dreams imagined I’d ever be here. But it is my imagination that got me here. Because all my life I’ve imagined what it’s like to be other people. People not like me, not necessarily from New Jersey, people from other countries, other centuries, even. As actors, we’re encouraged to make that leap. But I know that curiosity is something that we all have in us from birth. We all wonder what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes. Imagination. It’s how we fly up and out of our own lives into the world that we share. And it’s where empathy and understanding are born. My dreams were born in New Jersey and my imagination was nurtured in her public schools. And for that I’m very, very grateful. Thank you for this wonderful honor.

Meryl Streep is in Los Angeles attending the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards as a nominee for “Only Murders in the Building”. The award, one of the few surprises of the evening so far, did not go to predicted winner Hannah Einbinder nor “industry veterans” Streep or Carol Burnett, but to “The Bear”‘s Liza Colón-Zayas. Edit: Lots of additional pictures from the arrivals, the ceremony as well as screencaptures have been added to the archives. Enjoy.

On Sunday, the New Jersey Hall of Fame team was thrilled and honored that Actress Meryl Streep stopped by to visit the New Jersey Hall of Fame at American Dream last week to film her remarks for the NJHOF’s 16th annual Induction Ceremony, which will be hosted by Danny DeVito and scheduled to broadcast on November 9, 2024, and premiere on social media in January. “Meryl is widely regarded as the greatest actress of her generation (and probably any generation). The wisdom she shared about the importance of tapping into your imagination to live your best life, was priceless. Meryl is very kind and humble, and proud to be a Jersey girl. She will be formally inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in November. Details about our television special that is being filmed on location at our new museum and will be released in the coming weeks,” stated NJHOF President Steve Edwards.

New York’s Irish Arts Center (IAC) will honor three time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep at their 25th Annual Spirit of Ireland Gala later this year, Playbill reports. Held November 15, the gala marks the completion of the IAC’s third full year of operation in its new Irish Arts Center building. The IAC is known for highlighting the evolving arts and culture of Ireland and Irish America in an environment of warm Irish hospitality. Streep, whose maternal great-great-grandmother Grace Strain left Horn Head, Co. Donegal for New York in 1864, had the following to say of the honor: “I am thrilled and delighted to join my Irish friends on the night, in support of this extraordinary center and its dedicated staff and associated writers, performers, and artisans. I know the craic will be good!!” Said Irish Arts Center Executive Director Aidan Connolly, “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to present Meryl Streep with our Spirit of Ireland Award at this year’s 25th Annual Gala. As an organization we strive to present transformative work that takes audiences on an emotional journey and illuminates our common humanity. Ms. Streep has done this throughout her astounding career, with uncommon grace and astounding longevity, and we cannot wait to pay tribute to her in New York on November 15th.” For more information, visit IrishArtsCenter.org.

Congratulations to Meryl Streep for receiving a Primetime Emmy Award nomination as Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series for playing Loretta Durkin in “Only Murders in the Building”. The show received a staggering 21 nominations in total, including nods for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series (Steve Martin and Martin Short), Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series (Selena Gomez), Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series (Paul Rudd) and Outstanding Guest Actors In A Comedy Series (Matthew Broderick and Da’Vine Joy Randolph). This is Meryl Streep’s sixth Emmy nomination – she received nods for “First Do No Harm” and “Big Little Lies” and won for “Holocaust”, “Angels in America” and for narrating the Netflix series “Five Came Back.” The Emmy Awards will be handed out during a live ceremony on September 15, 2024.

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series
Carol Burnett (Palm Royale)
Liza Colón-Zayas (The Bear)
Hannah Einbinder (Hacks)
Janelle James (Abbott Elementary)
Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary)
Meryl Streep (Only Murders In The Building)

The New Jersey Hall of Fame has announced its class of inductees for 2024—and the group includes some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Meryl Streep, who grew up in Bernardsville, Paul Rudd, who was born in Passaic, and Kevin Smith, a Red Bank native, are on this year’s list, which features 18 New Jerseyans who have achieved greatness in categories including performing arts & entertainment, sports, and education & science. “The 2024 class of inductees of the New Jersey Hall of Fame illustrate the New Jersey ethic of hard work, determination and grit,” Jon F. Hanson, Chairman of the New Jersey Hall of Fame, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to celebrate the contributions of 18 new Inductees so future generations can learn about their journeys.” Streep, one of our country’s most celebrated actors and a three-time Oscar winner, got her start in a fifth-grade play, then starred in musicals at Bernards High School. Things came full circle for the Jersey native in the late ’90s, when her movie One True Thing filmed for several months in nearby Morristown. You can watch the induction ceremony on November 13.

Back in April Nicole Kidman was honored as the recipient of the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award. Yesterday, TNT finally aired the ceremony and posted an array of speeches online, including Meryl’s final speech before handing the AFI award to her co-star from “The Hours”, “The Prom” and “Big Little Lies”. It was a heartfelt and very entertaining speech, so make sure to check it out. Screencaptures have been added to the photo gallery.

All public appearances at the 77th Cannes Film Festival have been updated with additional pictures, including a new Q&A, which took place earlier today: Taking a broader look at the state of the industry, as France currently goes through its own #MeToo reckoning, Streep considered how significantly the film industry changed once women gained greenlight authority at the studios.

Before there were women in greenlight positions at studios, it was very hard for men to see themselves in a female protagonist. It was not difficult for the women executives to see themselves in a male protagonist, but the hardest thing — I’ve said this 150,000 times — the hardest thing is for a male to live through the female in a movie who’s the lead,” Streep said during the Q&A. “They just didn’t get it. The first movie I ever made where a man came up to me afterwards and said ‘I know how you felt’ was “Devil Wears Prada.’ It was more than one man who came and said ‘I know how you felt, I know what it’s like to be the one to take the decisions and nobody understands you.’ That was fascinating to me.

After an extended standing ovation at the top of the Q&A, Streep talked through her first experience at the Cannes Film Festival back in 1989, where she would go on to win the best actress award for “A Cry in the Dark.” She remembered not feeling “safe” there. “I needed maybe a dozen [bodyguards] the first time I came here because, in the olden days, I don’t know, there wasn’t the same security. All the barriers weren’t there… it was insane. I almost didn’t recover from that. I couldn’t believe how wild it was. So that was 35 years ago. It’s changed a lot, the world has changed a lot,” Streep said. When asked further about this, she said it’s tied back to how she doesn’t consider herself a “rock star” and instead has a “life that is filled with things that are not hyperbolic like that.”

An emotional Meryl Streep was greeted by a thunderous two-minute standing ovation. The 74-year-old Oscar winner was so overcome with emotion that she first pretended to walk off the stage, but eventually began to dance to the applause. Juliette Binoche, herself emotional, presented the award to Streep, saying: “When I see you on the screen, I don’t see you … Where does it come from? Were you born like this? I don’t know, but there’s a believer in you; a believer that allows me to believe. You changed the way we look at cinema.” In her speech, Streep thanked Cannes for welcoming her back after 35 years. She said that watching the ceremony’s retrospective clips of her career was “like looking out the window of a bullet train, watching my youth fly into my middle age right onto where I am standing on this stage tonight. So many faces and so many places that I remember.” Streep said that the last time she was at Cannes, “I was already a mother of three, I was about to turn 40 and I thought that my career was over.” “That was not an unrealistic expectation for actresses at that time. And the only reason that I’m here tonight and that it continued is because of the very gifted artists with whom I’ve worked, including Madame La President,” she said, gesturing to jury president Greta Gerwig. Streep ended her speech by saying that she is “just so grateful that you haven’t gotten sick of my face and you haven’t gotten off the train.” Pictures from the arrivals, ceremony and add-ons from the photocall have been added to the photo gallery.

A few hours ago, Meryl Streep has arrived at the 77th Cannes Film Festival’s photocall for her Honorary Palme d’Or accolade, which will be handed out during the opening ceremony later this evening. A great batch of pictures from the photocall have been added to the photocall. Make sure to check back later for pictures from the ceremony.